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Born Into Brothels

While living in thered light district of Calcutta, documenting life in the brothels, New York-based photographer Zana Briski embarked on a project by which she gave cameras to the children of prostitutes and taught them photography, awakening within them hidden talent and creativity and giving them a means to transform their lives.

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Be warned that my NYPL copy was ONLY in Bengali,.. without any English subtitles !?? I mostly just watched the Director's commentary and the bonus extras, ,.. and very much liked the film, the children, and the photography.

love_my_library_card
Jul 11, 2013

Wonderful exploration of a group of severely underprivileged children in Calcutta who are given the opportunity to create a better future for themselves through photography. Be sure to watch the version with the directors' commentary for more details and background information on the film, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2005.

This is a very interesting documentary, It is, as it says, a story featuring children of prostitutes in Calcutta, but there is always more too it than that, The documentary is from an American photographer who becomes very close with the children and teaches them photography, the children show an amazing amount of passion and ability, and some of the photographs they show are just amazing, Another major part of this documentary is this woman's struggle to help these children make something of their lives and get them into schools, Something that is exceedingly difficult for the simple fact that they live in the red light district. These kids are amazing, definitely worth watching.

Note that it is very lightly narrated in English, but most of the story is told by the children themselves, so it is heavily subtitled.